Providing for Consideration of H.R. 5682, Approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the Rules Committee.

I rise in strong support of this rule and the underlying legislation, H.R. 5682, to authorize the construction of the Keystone pipeline. You know, it is not every day that I come back--and we have been gone for awhile from debating while we have been out actually campaigning and listening to the American people, and the American people spoke rather loudly last week, and it is good to come back and begin to put into practice what they have said. In fact, it is amazing to me how debates that went on so far here and coming to the floor--in fact, from people that normally we never disagree on--I am actually bringing to the floor a little bit of bipartisanship here.

In fact, I know that some will think there is no better argument for the pipeline--in fact, there is no better one that I have heard than one that I read in the paper today from a distinguished colleague in the other Chamber just across the way who does not share the Republican point of view. He said in regards to the Keystone pipeline:

It would be a tremendous windfall for all of us. It is something we can count on. I can't for the life of me understand why we haven't, to date, been able to move this piece of legislation forward.

Well, good grief, neither do I. In fact, if I was to spend the rest of my 5 minutes just trying to understand why the Senate can't move bills, we would be here all night, Mr. Speaker. The gentleman from the other side, the other body, the Senate, summed it up clearly. He said: I don't understand why we can't move stuff.

What I have also missed, Mr. Speaker, coming back to the floor of the House, is things that I have never heard before, I mean, not at least in north Georgia where I am from. When we talk about jobs--and I have heard it talked about here on the floor of the House this afternoon; in fact, it was said that this is a waste of taxpayer money. To bring bills like this up, that it is a waste of taxpayer money. What is a waste of taxpayer money is the House Republicans passing jobs bills for Americans regardless of their party, jobs for them, and having them sit in a Senate that never woke up. That is a waste of taxpayer money. Where do I go to get my money back from that side of the aisle?

You know what is another thing that is amazing to me today, I actually heard something, Mr. Speaker, and you may have to help me with this because I don't understand because it was just said here on the floor of the House that this bill was a special interest earmark. I have never heard jobs described as a special interest earmark. Are you telling me that the Congress, in looking to give people jobs, is a special interest earmark? I think that is exactly what we are supposed to be doing. Are you kidding? This is exactly what the election was about just a couple of days ago. It is exactly what the American people spoke of. It is exactly what they are tired of--of government standing in the way of jobs.

Emergency legislation, an ``emergency rule,'' another term I have just heard on the House floor just a few minutes ago, that we were coming to the floor with an emergency rule and that we were going to do something special. Undoubtedly, they have never met somebody who does not have a job. I have been without a job. And if you were to tell me that I could get a job when I was looking for a job, that is emergency legislation. It is whatever it is, and I am looking for a job, and there are millions of families looking for jobs. Special interests it is not; it is the work of this body. And to say it is a waste of time, have we lost that much of our vision of what the American people sent us here to do?

Are there things that we could bring up? I appreciate my friend from Colorado. Are there a multitude of bills we could bring up? Yes. But as my parents once told me, they said: Doug, that is the supper you are getting tonight. You either eat it or go to bed hungry.

The bill we have before us is a jobs bill--42,000 jobs--puts millions of people in jobs and the economy back together again in a way that helps our economy and helps the world, but yet all we are worried about is what could be. Well, what could be is not good enough for somebody who can't pay their house payment, who can't send their kids to school. It is bad.

If you are watching and if you want to think about this right now, there is a clear difference. And the clear difference is that the Republicans have listened to the folks at the ball fields, have listened to the folks at the churches and the synagogues, who have heard ``I need a job.''

I want to work together for good jobs, and we will get to better jobs; but what is before us right now, Mr. Speaker, is this bill. This is the bill that is before us, and there is bipartisan support for this. And we can claim what is not in it. We can claim what it is. But I would never ever want to come to this podium, Mr. Speaker, and ever say that a jobs bill is an earmark, that a jobs bill is something that we shouldn't be taking up or that it is a waste of time, because when we say that bills like this are a waste of time, then we might as well say to people on the unemployment line, ``You are a waste of time,'' and this Republican will never do that because the American people expect better from us. That is why this rule needs to pass; that is why this bill needs to pass; and that is why this Republican majority will do what it is sent here to do--govern.

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